Romulan Marauder

Notes

In late 2154 the NX-01 was ordered to carry a Tellarite ambassador, Gral, to the planet Babel One for a conference with the Andorians. The two governments had long been adversaries, and it was hoped that the conference would be an important step towards peace between them. Whilst on route the Enterprise received a distress call from an Andorian vessel, the Kumari. They found that the ship had been virtually destroyed, with all but nineteen of the crew killed. Rescuing the survivors the Enterprise set course for Andoria to return them to their home world. Data from the Kumari showed that the attack had been launched by a Tellarite ship.1

On the way to Andoria the NX-01 was intercepted by an Andorian warship. The vessel attacked without warning, refusing all communication. Commander Shran assisted Archer by indicating a weak spot on the ship’s shielding, but firing on the area had no effect on the ship. They managed to drive the ship off with torpedoes; Archer decided to follow.1

Both Shran and Gral blamed one another for the situation; Shran claimed that the Tellarites may have captured an Andorian ship and used it to attack Enterprise, while Gral claimed that it was obvious that the Imperial Guard was acting without government orders to disrupt any chance of peace.1

On reaching the damaged ship, Enterprise discovered a surprise – it was not the Andorian vessel which had previously attacked them but rather a much smaller ship of unfamiliar design. The vessel was equipped with a large number of subspace transceiver arrays and multispectral emitters all over the hull. Archer beamed a team over to the vessel in pressure suits, since life support did not appear to be working. The vessel became active once the away team was aboard, attacking Enterprise. Some of the boarding party was recovered, but Reed and Tucker were stranded on the ship when Enterprise was forced to retreat. Analysis of the data the boarding party sent back showed that it may be Romulan in origin. Further analysis indicated that the multispectral emitters were a holographic system which allowed the ship to imitate any other vessel, using tri-phasic emitters to simulate different kinds of weapons.1

Meanwhile, tensions between the Andorians and Tellarites had risen to breaking point. Shran broke out of his quarters and took the Tellarites hostage, threatening vengeance for the attack. Although he backed down when Archer offered proof that the Tellarites had not in fact been behind the attacks, one of the Tellarites took the chance to fire on Talas, Shran’s tactical officer and lover.1

On the Romulan vessel, Reed and Trip reached the bridge only to find it empty – the entire ship was apparently unmanned, piloted by remote control from a distant location.1

The Romulan drone ship launched another attack, this time imitating the NX-01 to destroy a Rigellian ship. The ship took some damage in the battle and T’Pol and Mayweather managed to develop a sensor network capable of locating the ship, but implementing it would require 128 ships. Archer set about gathering a fleet of Human, Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite ships – ironically promoting the very unity which the Romulans were trying to destroy with the drone ship.2

On the drone Reed and Tucker tried to disable to ship to assist Enterprise in locating it. Initially they had limited success – the ship was fitted with self-repair systems, and those controlling it threatened to release radiation into the bridge to kill the two officers if they did not co-operate. However, Reed managed to overload his phase pistol on the bridge, inflicting considerable damage on the drone.2

When Talas died of her wounds Shran challenged the Tellarite who had shot her to a duel. Fearing that the alliance would be broken, Archer substituted himself for the diplomat and managed to win the duel by disabling Shran. With the continuation of the alliance thus ensured, the fleet managed to locate the drone ship and Enterprise hurried to intercept. The vessel repaired itself sufficiently to engage Enterprise in battle; Tucker and Reed managed to reach an airlock and literally threw themselves overboard as a group of allied ships arrived to take the drone on. Unfortunately the drone repaired it’s warp drive and escaped the battle.2

Analysis of the telemetry which controlled the drone indicated that the pilot was an Andorian telepath. Archer took the Enterprise to Andoria to search out the Aenar, a reclusive telepathic subspecies of Andorian who lived in the Northern Wastes. Archer and Shran managed to contact the Aenar, who confirmed that Gareb, one of their people, had gone missing some months before. Jahmel, The man’s sister agreed to accompany Archer on the search for the drone ship, and Enterprise set about constructing a unit which would allow her to interrupt the communications link between the ship and pilot.3

The Romulans, disturbed at the Human’s ability to unite the various races against the drone ship, dispatched two vessels to destroy the NX-01. The battle did not go well for the Starfleet vessel, but fortunately Jahmel was able to contact her brother on Romulus and inform him that she was on the ship. Rather than endanger his sister’s life Gareb used one drone to attack the other; although he was murdered by the Romulan Admiral Valdore for this action, he managed to destroy one of the drones and gave Enterprise the time it needed to destroy the other once and for all.3

This incident had important repercussions throughout known space. For the first time the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites had come together and worked towards a common goal – a major step forwards for governments who were more usually at one another’s throats. It also marked the emergence of the Humans as a significant presence in the area. Even though as yet Earth had only a single starship capable of significant interstellar travel4, the Humans had been by far the most significant factor in determining the true nature of the threat1, gathering the alliance to combat it2, and finally ending it once and for all.3 The ability of Humanity to act so decisively in a crisis and bring together the other races would be a major factor in their eventual unification with the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites to form the United Federation of Planets only seven years later.5